Parish council takes on Bill Gates after complaining it had to fork out over £1,000 to use Microsoft teams for its meetings

By EIRIAN JANE PROSSER, SENIOR REPORTER Published: 15:41, 29 June 2026 | Updated: 15:46, 29 June 2026 A small parish council is taking on billionaire Bill Gates after it was forced to pay a hidden £1,100 fee to access an online meeting platform. Killinghall Parish Council, based north of Harrogate, North Yorks, filed a report with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) arguing that Microsoft was creating 'avoidable financial burdens on small public bodies'. The village council had purchased Gates' Microsoft Teams - an online communication platform providing instant messenger and video calling - for 10 members of its parish to use. Yet only after installing the software did it become apparent that unless each person had their own Microsoft 365 licence and a Microsoft email, costing £120 each, the technology would not work effectively. As a result, the cash-strapped council had to spend £1,100 to provide nine councillors and one clerk with Microsoft-hosted email accounts. The council insists this requirement was not made clear when they initially downloaded the software. Parish clerk Robert Bareham, 61, told the Daily Mail: 'We are the first level of council between the public and wider democracy. We wanted to use the software so councillors had access to all the same documents at the same time. Killinghall Parish Council in North Yorkshire has taken on Bill Gates' company Microsoft. Pictured: Gates in Washington DC earlier this month The council filed a report with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) arguing that Microsoft was creating 'avoidable financial burdens on small public bodies' 'But we struck upon a problem when we realised Teams and SharePoint would only recognise emails that originated in Microsoft-owned Outlook. 'We could not justify the council spending that sort of money on something that only benefited the council.  'It is harsh and wrong of Microsoft to monopolise these things because you cannot do much in the way of business these days unless you have it.' Mr Bareham, who is semi-retired and also works as a parish councillor for Hampsthwaite parish council, added that the money would instead be used to go towards a much-needed renovation of a children's play area, which would cost around £100,000. He added: 'I would like to see Microsoft make a more tiered cost for public services, charities and organisations which don't have as much money. Maybe a special rate for them but I don't expect there to be much change as Microsoft is so big.' The CMA's Microsoft Business Software Ecosystem Investigation will look into whether the tech firm is limiting UK customers' choices as well as the use of its AI products such as Co-Pilot. The watchdog is considering Killinghall council's submission alongside 30 other organisations who have taken issue with Microsoft. Writing to the CMA, the parish said: 'For our council, consisting of 9 councillors and 1 clerk, this results in an unplanned annual cost of £1,100. 'This requirement was not made sufficiently clear at the outset and represents poor value for money, limiting our ability to use public funds efficiently. 'We believe this reflects broader concerns about reduced customer choice, lack of transparency, and increased costs arising from Microsoft's ecosystem design.' The submission added that the cost of the subscription 'directly impacted' the council's 'ability to manage public funds responsibly'. The Daily Mail has contacted Microsoft for comment. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.